Adriana Kuiper + Ryan Suter

As viewers approach this work a motion sensor is activated, illuminating the windows and playing the Crystal Gail song, "Wrong Road Again". Additionally a live feed of the local police scanner can be heard in real time emanating from the loudspeaker on top of the piece.

Constructed for the exhibition "The Natural and the Manufactured", Dawson City, YT. August 2013.The sculpture references barrels seen in the local landscape that are used to burn waste or wood that is sometimes used to provide a source of heat and warmth. However, instead of setting material ablaze, frozen firewood is loaded into the barrel. The makeshift firewood slowly melts into a bucket in the base of the sculpture and the water collected from the melting ice is regularly recast/frozen into more icy wood to fuel the failed fire. The work also alerts viewers when the “fire” needs to be restarted as a somewhat pathetic alarm of drips amplified through a speaker stops when the firewood runs out.

Night Tweeter is a mobile sculpture that can be moved to various locations by bike. Features of the sculpture/bike trailer included a lid that converts to a large speaker, and a white tent that folds out of the trailer. The tent is illuminated by interior lights when it is set up. The lights inside the tent serve the additional purpose of attracting insects through small windows in the tent to the interior of the structure. Once the bugs are inside, a small camera tracks their erratic movement and sends information to a computer that translates data to produce sound. The resulting noise emanating from the speakers sounds like a discordant theremin. This project was restaged for Nocturne in Halifax in 2014 and installed on Citadel Hill which is a National Historic Site. For this version the sculpture sent blinking signals from the top of the hill using Morse Code.

4. "Yukon Sun Burn, Picnic Table", 2013, Mixed media

This work was made during our residency at KIAC in Dawson City, Yukon. Magnifying glasses supported by simple constructions were placed on a picnic table at specific angles in order to track the movement of the sun throughout the day. By carefully positioning the convex lens, a focal point of condensed sunlight burns a mark into the surface of the table. The marks left behind act as a record of passing time in a month where the sun barely sets and darkness never comes.

5."Yukon Sun Burn, Postcards", 2013, altered post cards

Postcards were purchased from a variety of tourist shops in Dawson City, Yukon. We built an apparatus that held a single post card and a magnifying glass in place allowing concentrated sunlight to burn a mark though the card. The resulting mark or burn follows and records the movement of the sun for a period of time during the day/evening. The beginning and end of the duration of time passed is marked on each card. These markings were recorded every day during a one month long residency at KIAC in Dawson City during the month of June, 2013, a month that endures 24 hours of sunlight. Requests for postcards were sent via social media and were mailed to recipients from Dawson.

Adriana Kuiper is an installation artist who lives and works in Sackville, New Brunswick. Her recent work explores versions of modified, hidden architectural structures meant to suggest safety from extreme forces, natural and otherwise. Her work investigates provisionally built structures found in the local landscape, and she often adapts and manipulates existing instructions for “Do-It-Yourself” shelters and small buildings. Outdoor public installations of her work have been show recently at Struts Gallery (Sackville), Nocturne (Halifax), Art in the Open,(Charlottetown), Nuit Blanche (Toronto), and at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Kuiper’s work has been shown across Canada in cities such as Kitchener, Oakville, Vancouver and Calgary, and has been exhibited internationally in Oslo, Norway. Adriana Kuiper is a faculty member at Mount Allison University where she teaches sculpture and drawing.

Ryan Suter is a multi-media artist living and working in Sackville, New Brunswick. He has recently presented new media work as part of Halifax’s Nocturne Art at Night festival as well as Struts Gallery Not A Standard Appliance exhibition. Ryan also works in collaboration with his partner Adriana Kuiper where they have exhibited at the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown PEI, the University of Saskatchewan Art Gallery and the Odd Gallery in Dawson City. Ryan is a regular part time faculty member at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and is currently the Manager of Faucet Media Arts in Sackville. He holds a BFA from the University of Ottawa and an MFA from the University of Guelph.

Adriana Kuiper and Ryan Suter have collaborated on work since 2010. These collaborations explore both artists’ interest in public installation, sound and electronics.